Slow down, breathe easy, make a poem of your life. Don't let life rush by; reflect. Look for beauty and rejuvenate your soul.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Book pages in mixed media art

I have taken the brave step of pulling pages from a book (sacrilege!) in the name of art.


I am quite sure people fall into one of two categories : those pure and perfectionist souls who worship a pristine book and those practical pensives who will happily deface one to extract its goodness.
Amongst readers there are those who handle their novels with care and insert respectful bookmarks. Then there are those who bend the covers backwards for easy reading and fold the corner of a page when there is no bookmark to hand.
In churches there are those who wrap their bibles securely in a leather cover and fret when the thumbed pages turn a little grey. Then there are the annotators who scribble notes in the margins, underline and even highlight in neon colours.
There are those who must buy new, to smell the pages and display on the shelf. Then there are those content with second-hand who can let the book journey on again after reading.

Which type of bookworm are you?

Being largely the former myself, choosing even an unwanted book otherwise destined for the charity shop, to rip the pages from for a little mixed media artwork required several deep breaths and a solid determination. But with a greater purpose in mind I took the plunge and now have these two ladies with book page hair to show for the poor book's sacrifice.





I think they are both mindful of the action required to style their recycled hair and appreciative of the result, as am I.

Louise

7 comments:

  1. I think the ladies don't mind :-)
    good for you!

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  2. Our things are to use, and every thing is part of our art.

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  3. I also have a hard time tearing pages from a book. Your ladies are very pretty.

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  4. Ha! It is hard for me to rip out pages too. I recently found a second copy of a book I had purchased and did not even like that well - so I now have the perfect sacrificial book! That being said, in hardcovers I use a bookmark, paperbacks the corners are turned down. LOVE your lovely ladies and the book page detail looks cool! I'm digging the pink too!

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  5. I think I started life as the kind of person who wanted to keep books pristine, but somewhere along the way I realized I wasn't very good at taking care of things.

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  6. These are very cool. I am beginning an art journal soon. I find this inspiring. And encouraging about using book pages for further expansion of the artists' prerogative. :-)

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